8 Comments

I recently (about 3-4 weeks ago) deleted all my social media. It’s been absolutely remarkable for my mental health. The depression, hopelessness, apathy has minimized and I feel more present in my own life and work. There are still other apps and screens I need to minimize but getting rid of TikTok and instagram was a great start.

I’ll definitely be checking out that podcast and look forward to hearing more about your journey

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I like to see people like you talking about minimizing the use of social media. Sometimes, when you are an artist or writer need to be there, or at least it is what you feel and it is a hard decision to close all your social media. Thank you for sharing.

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I am working on minimizing my digital use as well. I took social media off of my phone last week and aside from a couple days of itchiness, I feel much better already. I have done this before, taken a break and then come back with all sorts of parameters and rules for myself, but inevitably I end up scrolling again. The thing is designed for it. People get paid millions of dollars to figure out how to hook us. And yet, and perhaps this is human naïveté talking, I still have hope. I have hope for all of us!

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Recently, I've made an intentional effort to reduce my screen time as much as possible. I don't think it's talked about enough how difficult digital minimalism is when your passions and career are online-based. I write on Substack and I've been wanting to start creating content, but it's hard balancing that with restricting my time online. Hopefully I can find some kind of balance soon. Thank you for sharing your digital minimalism journey, it was one of things that inspired to start my own.

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I too had a break from social media and then tentatively came back but with the plan to minimise my use with rules. It’s better than I was before the break but it’s insidious. And with negativity has crept back into my life. But I feel I can’t abandon it completely (especially as my job is in digital comms).

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Digital minimalism is such a challenging subject to deal with isn't it. I'm in the middle of a three month experiment to stay off social media. I've deleted Facebook, Instagram and You-tube from my phone. It's a liberating feeling but I have no idea yet how I will feel once the three months are up. Will I resume use but in a more intentional way, or stop altogether? I honestly don't know which way it's going to go yet.

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"What had started as a fun online endeavour was turning into another life-sucking burnout trap" - the story of my life it seems!! I want to get to the point where, like you said, "I am happy with the forms of entertainment and insight I have in my life outside of social media". That's the goal...

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I feel the same ambivalence about socials. I deleted Facebook years ago and have never looked back, and would likely do the same for Insta and X too, if my work didn't require a "presence." And ironically I also just posted about the necessary evil that is social media. Here's the link in case you're interested: https://theautisticmom.substack.com/p/how-to-survive-social-media-when

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